1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of diagnosis of chlamydial infection and disease as well as treatment/prevention of chlamydial infection and disease.
2. Background Art
Chlamydia trachomatis infection is a leading cause of sexually transmitted bacterial diseases. Although antibiotics can be used effectively to treat chlamydial infection, it is hard to determine when and whom to treat due to the asymptomatic nature of the infection. Once persistent infection occurs and pathologies develop, it can be too late to treat. Thus, there exists a need in the art for more rapid and accurate diagnostics and more effective and available therapeutics for treatment and/or prevention of Chlamydia infection and disease.
The present invention overcomes previous shortcomings in the art by providing chlamydial antigens that can be used to develop rapid and convenient means for diagnosing chlamydial invention and to design effective treatment protocols and vaccines for treating and preventing chlamydial infection and diseases.
The antigens of the present invention have been identified by an approach employing fusion proteins covering the entire genome as antigens to screen human antibody responses, thereby allowing for a more accurate determination of the relative immunodominance of chlamydial antigens. Prior studies have used either predefined antigens or denatured antigens derived from whole organisms for similar analyses. For example, antibody responses to CT681 (MOMP) have been linked to protective immunity, while antibody responses to CT110 (HSP60) have been linked to chlamydial pathogenicity. The more comprehensive approach employed in the present invention allows for the identification of more relevant and important chlamydial antigens.
By co-relating the antibody response profiles with patient clinical symptomology, antigens can be identified that are involved in pathogenesis and can thus be developed as diagnostic markers. Furthermore, antigens can be identified that are involved in protective immunity for use as vaccine candidates.